This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Loss of sight is accompanied by difficulty in understanding spoken word, as a person who has recently lost his sense of sight is not accustomed to perceiving and summing the direction of the source of sounds. An acute aspect of the transitional state of a person who has recently lost his sense of sight relates to the person's ability to fit in with normal social situations, without feeling uncomfortable or left out. For instance, it is not uncommon in social interaction situations that someone would talk to a blind person, especially one who has only recently lost his sense of sight, without calling out his name. Under such conditions, the blind person would not know that he is being addressed, which could lead to an awkward situation. An important part of a social interaction or group conversation is to focus on the person speaking at any given time. For a blind person, especially one who has recently lost his sense of sight, this may be very difficult if not impossible to do.
The following are hypothetical examples of social interactions that can make a blind person feel uncomfortable or left out.